Brut Champagne

Brut denotes a dry style of Champagne (less than 15 grams per litre). Most Champagne is non-vintage, produced from a blend from different years. The non-vintage blend is always based predominately on wines made from the current harvest, enriched with aged wines from earlier harvests, which impart an additional level of complexity to the end wine.

Learn more about Brut Champagne

Brut denotes a dry style of Champagne (less than 15 grams per litre). Most Champagne is non-vintage, produced from a blend from different years. The non-vintage blend is always based predominately on wines made from the current harvest, enriched with aged wines (their proportion and age varies by brand) from earlier harvests, which impart an additional level of complexity to the end wine. Champagnes from a single vintage are labelled with the year reference and with the description Millésimé.

Non-vintage Champagnes can improve with short-term ageing (typically two to three years), while vintages can develop over much longer periods (five to 30 years). The most exquisite and often top-priced expression of a house’s style is referred to as Prestige Cuvée. Famous examples include Louis Roederer's Cristal, Moët & Chandon's Dom Pérignon, and Pol Roger's Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill.

Sourced from the prestigious Grand Cru village of Mailly, located at the heart of the Montagne de Reims, and benefiting from over three years’ ageing, our non-vintage United Kingdom Cuvée is a classic blend of 75 percent Pinot Noir and 25 percent Chardonnay.

All the hallmarks of Grand Cru are here, with brioche and flowers on the nose and an elegant palate which marries notes of lemon grass, gingerbread and honeysuckle. The wine effortlessly combines structure and finesse, and reverberates with a really authoritative Grand Cru crescendo on the finish.

Slightly younger vines nourish this exemplary fizz from Nicolas Chiquet, although you would not think so when tasting it, such is its power and precision. With all three key varietals in the blend (Chardonnay and Pinot Noir favoured with 40% each, Pinot Meunier making up the balance) and a relatively low dosage of 9 g/l the wine is delicate and floral, with an ethereal lift and soft brioche biscuit notes both underlining quality. Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer

Until 31st December 75cl bottles of Pol Roger, Réserve are discounted by 25% off the single bottle price.*

Pol Roger is perhaps best known as Winston Churchill's favourite Champagne. The House remains family-owned and has a reputation for producing Champagnes of finesse and elegance which age very well. Pol Roger Brut Réserve, made from equal parts of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, is consistently one of the very best non-vintage cuvées on the market, largely due to the high proportion of aged reserve wines in the blend.

This has a truly wide appeal and is perfect for lovers of exuberantly styled Champagnes. Feminine and fruity in its youth, it takes on a fuller flavour with age. The added reserve wines are specially selected to achieve the requisite elegance, balance and harmony. It’s perfect for the cellar as well as current drinking, which is an excellent excuse to buy more than one case.

* Discount only applies to 75cl bottles and does not apply to any other sizes or formats. Discount already applied to product price, no further discount will be applied at checkout.

Gardet Brut Reserve showcases the character of aged reserve wines, as well as the ‘prestige' style of this Champagne house. This is two-thirds Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier with one-third Chardonnay, 25% reserve wine added, aged on lees 5 years, the dosage being 5 g/L. Dark straw-yellow colour with some golden hues. The bouquet is full, rich, with strong toasty overtones, backed by layers of creamy notes. This is a robust wine with intense flavours, quite open in expression.

Chantale Bara has now taken over from the legendary Paul, her father, to ease the Champagne House of Bara into its seventh generation. Established in 1833, La Maison Bara has built a reputation as the great ambassador for the Champagne village of Bouzy. The Champagnes are colourful and rich, voluptuous and honeyed, yet always finely balanced and pleasingly textured.

The reputation of Bouzy resides in the quality and style of its Pinot Noirs, generally ripe, rich and very expressive. All three of these adjectives apply to this, the signature wine from Champagne Bara: a charming, forward Champagne, with a nose evocative of nectarine, plum and spice, then delicious flavours in the mouth which combine ripe fruity notes, a very fine mousse and an elegant, finely sculpted finish.

Paul Bara is a legend in Champagne. He took over the firm as a teenager 60 years ago and remembers every vintage in perfect detail. He belongs to the sixth generation to run the company since it was founded in 1833. Many major champagne houses have approached Bara over the years to try to buy the 30 exceptional locations he controls in the village...Despite the traditional methods, Bara's wines have a very elegant fruitiness, which is unique in Bouzy.Juhlin's Champagne Guide, 2008

Until 31st December 75cl bottles of Pol Roger, Pure, Extra Brut are discounted by 25% off the single bottle price.*

Low or zero dosage Champagnes are very modish at the moment, but can be extremely difficult to get right, the region’s historical infatuation with sugar being as a result of climatic obligation rather than any whimsical pursuit of pleasure. So to make a wine with no sugar, and to entitle it Pure, is courageous indeed. Pol Roger, it should come as no great surprise to learn, has risen to its own challenge, and has done so with considerable aplomb.

The key seems to be to stick with the winning formula, namely a third each of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, but to select from specific vineyards and to age it a little longer, thereby engendering a natural softening. Spicy, with notes of crushed apple, broiche and peach stones, this is a very successful wine. Suitably cerebral to accompany any lively debate over a plate of 12 Fine de Claire Oysters.

* Discount only applies to 75cl bottles and does not apply to any other sizes or formats. Discount already applied to product price, no further discount will be applied at checkout.

Moët & Chandon can trace its history back to 1743 when it was established by Claude Moët. It is now part of the massive LVMH group and is by far the largest House in Champagne, producing a staggering 24 million bottles a year and with nearly 30 kilometres of cellars in which to mature its stocks.

Moët et Chandon’s Brut Impérial, the House’s non-vintage cuvée, is still the number one best-selling non-vintage Champagne. Enticing with green apple and citrus fruit notes, it has an impressive depth and elegance.

The glorious summer of 2009 was particularly good for Mailly's Grand Cru Pinot Noir grapes, a high percentage of which are used in its vintage blends. The resulting wine is ripe, rounded and opulent with aromas of nectarine, pear, white blossom and biscuit. The palate is rich and textural with red apple, peach and a delicate honeyed note on the finish, which will develop beautifully with time. Davy Zyw - Wine Buyer

Billecart-Salmon is one of the few remaining Champagne houses to be owned by the original family and was established in 1818 by Nicolas-François Billecart. Most of Billecart-Salmon's fruit comes from a small vineyard holding, though this is supplemented with grapes bought in from the Marne Valley and the Montagne de Reims. Meticulous production techniques, from the use of their own cultured yeast to its long, slow, cool fermentation, ensure that the family has 100 percent control of production.

This is without doubt one of the finest, yet least known, Grande Marque Champagnes, made with mainly Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. This Champagne is lively, elegantly textured and fresh, with a very long finish.

Louis Roederer, a wonderful family-owned Champagne House founded in 1776, has a tremendous reputation for quality. It has remained an independent, family-owned company and is now managed by Frédéric Rouzaud, who represents the seventh generation of the lineage. Eighty percent of the firm's needs are supplied by their own, magnificent, 444 acres of vineyard holdings.

This wine is without doubt one of the very top non-vintage Champagnes. Its elegant complexities come from the barrel-ageing of a high proportion of the blend, together with at least four years' maturation in bottle before disgorging. The quintessence of the House style, Brut Premier offers quality and glamour as well as excellent value. A structured, elegant wine, it is deliciously creamy with almond and toast characteristics alongside the complexity and roundness that are the hallmarks of this House.

Laurent-Perrier was established in 1812 by the Laurent family. Bordeaux-born winemaker Alain Terrier is an exceptionally gifted character, blending roughly equal amounts of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to produce exquisite Champagnes, with delicate richness and great longevity. The Ultra Brut is made only from vintages with the highest level of maturity. The grapes are sorted to retain only those with the optimum natural sugar levels and the lowest acidity. The wine is aged after the second fermentation for at least four years before being disgorged, with no dosage (sugar) whatsoever added.

A rare beast, completely devoid of dosage, the wine’s dryness is complemented by an extraordinary wealth and concentration of fruit. Cerebral nourishment with bubbles.

Philippe Clicquot-Muiron established Veuve Clicquot in 1772. It was, however, Phillipe`s daughter-in-law, Nicole-Barbe Clicquot, who really laid the foundations of the modern company. She was one of the great innovators – it was she who invented remuage, or riddling, in the early 19th century. Now it is part of the LVMH group.

With its famous yellow label, this non-vintage Champagne is recognised as Veuve's flagship wine. It is a blend of around 50 Cru village and reserve wines from different vintages. Exhibiting fruit, finesse and style, this is a rich, classic Champagne with a yeasty bouquet that truly deserves its status as a Grande Marque.

Mailly is one of the great Grand Cru villages in the Montagne de Reims. With a membership of 70 growers, the village's eponymous co-operative is one of the most dynamic in the region. One has only to visit its splendid seven-story gravity-fed installation to realise that this is a rather special organisation, the quality of its wines matched only be the peerless efficiency of its management. With a gifted winemaker in Hervé Dantan, Mailly is able to exploit the full potential of these top-graded vines.

All Pinot Noir from this fantastic House, the most celebrated co-operative in Champagne by some distance. Mailly is ideally suited to black grapes, its extended ripening period and the ensuing complexity of flavour perfectly captured here. Rich, creamy and food friendly, this is one of the best Blanc de Noirs on the market.

Bollinger was established in 1829 by Jacques Bollinger and Paul Renaudin. The House has a reputation for producing muscular Champagnes with body, depth and power; these are classic, complex, Pinot-Noir dominated Champagnes with the ability to age gracefully for many years.

A blend par excellence; Special Cuvée is the purest expression of Bollinger's house style. Its biscuity nose is endowed with hints of white fruit and the rich, full-bodied palate is perfectly balanced by fresh acidity and a soft, delicate mousse. A stylish Champagne that is ideal to drink now or in the next two or three year.

Ruinart is a low-profile, yet select, Champagne house which is steeped in history. It was founded in 1729 by Nicolas Ruinart in the city of Reims, the year after a Royal Decree in 1728, whereby Louis XV gave his consent for sparkling wines to be shipped in baskets containing 50 to 100 bottles. This opened the gates of Europe to Champagne and thus makes Ruinart the oldest Champagne House.

Made from 40 percent Chardonnay and 60 percent Pinot Noir, R de Ruinart makes use of 40 percent reserve wine and is aged on its lees for three years. The wine is elegant with floral notes to the fore and hints of white peach and acacia on the palate. An excellent apéritif wine, this is a splendid introduction to the delights from this most ancient of Champagne Houses.

Until 31st December 75cl bottles of 2009 Champagne Pol Roger are discounted by 25% off the single bottle price.*

This beautiful Champagne uses fruit from 20 Grand and Premier Cru vineyards and is a blend of 60 percent Pinot Noir and 40 percent Chardonnay. Aged for eight years in the House cellars, this is a complex and layered wine. Stone fruit, lemon and grapefruit show on the nose; to taste, there’s apple, stone fruit and citrus wrapped up with lovely, balanced acidity.

* Discount only applies to 75cl bottles and does not apply to any other sizes or formats. Discount already applied to product price, no further discount will be applied at checkout.

One of the first and the best of the biodynamic producers in Champagne, Fleury are based in the southern Aube region and are especially proud of this wonderfully refreshing and highly unusual 100% Pinot Blanc cuvée. Low dosage, low yields and highly individual, this is a hymn to purity and complexity. Notes of white flowers and ‘agrume’ cede gently to something little more exotic, broad and gently creamy, a fascination and eloquent testament to non-interventionist winemaking. Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer

Ruinart is a low-profile, yet select, Champagne house which is steeped in history. It was founded in 1729 by Nicolas Ruinart in the city of Reims, the year after a Royal Decree in 1728, whereby Louis XV gave his consent for sparkling wines to be shipped in baskets containing 50 to 100 bottles. This opened the gates of Europe to Champagne and thus makes Ruinart the oldest Champagne House.

The distinctive clear bottle for Ruinart’s Blanc de Blancs is based on an 18th century original. Its elegant Chardonnay persona is harmonious and elegant, capturing the House style. It is one of the finest blanc de blancs on the market, luminous of hue, rounded of form and lengthy in the memory.

Mailly is one of the great Grand Cru villages in the Montagne de Reims. With a membership of 70 growers, the village's eponymous co-operative is one of the most dynamic in the region. One has only to visit its splendid seven-story gravity-fed installation to realise that this is a rather special organisation, the quality of its wines matched only be the peerless efficiency of its management. With a gifted winemaker in Hervé Dantan, Mailly is able to exploit the full potential of these top-graded vines.

The 2008 vintage was outstanding in Champagne and Mailly has crafted a typically complex wine, dominated by toasty and savoury Pinot Noir with the balancing Chardonnay providing just that; a joyful and harmonious balance. The wine’s fruit-stone core cedes to a long refreshing finish, while its impressive concentration bodes well for the future.

Stylish and seductive from the outset, already open and expressive with delicate ripe stone fruit, floral touches and minerality but also graceful, pure and lifted. Suave and glossy on the attack with very fine mousse, and a fine-textured mid-palate that hints at the warmth of the vintage underpinned by freshness. Beautifully judged, with hints of honey leading to a polished finish and a touch of crisp grapefruit…simply delicious with huge appeal now but not at the expense of balance. Complete and harmonious with an irresistible vibrancy and energy. Drink 2017-2035.Adrian Brice, Fine Wine Buyer

This Vintage is made up from twenty villages all classified as Premiers or Grands Crus, located in the Cte des Blancs and the Montagne de Reims regions. The bouquet is fine and complex, with intense floral and dried fruit aromas. There is an elegant harmony between toast and brioche notes and on the palate the wine is firm and well structured, with masses of substance and refinement. It is the perfect accompaniment to lobsters, scallops and smoked salmon.

Louis Roederer, a wonderful family-owned Champagne House founded in 1776, has a tremendous reputation for quality. In 1876 the House created the now famous Cristal, at the request of Alexander II. This once intensely sweet wine is now one of the most luscious, deeply flavoured Champagnes available.

From the warm 2006 vintage, this has arich bouquet with hints of zesty fruit, lilies and light toasted hazelnuts. As it develops in the glass the fruit aromas become more intense and complex. The palate confirms the delicate fruit with a deep, ripe flavour and silky texture, finishing crisply with a pure, mineral balance. As a young wine this is already deliciously balanced and charming, and promises to be a magnificent Champagne in full maturity.